I want to run a system where my players all have weak peasant like PCs at the start.
Every game I find is built around people that can already easily take on wolves and monsters and stuff and do a bunch of stuff.
I want them to grow in strength slowly and consistently with each adventure, but not start out special.
What is a good system for this?
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Song of Swords.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Dungeon Craw Classics actually has the players make a bunch of characters at level 0, before putting through an introductory adventure called "the funnel" in which the vast majority of them are wiped out, and any that remain are your candidates for starting out as a shitty level 1 adventurer
Probably something like AD&D 1e, you have basically no capabilities at start. OSR games are the way to go.
Both of these systems are crap.
>D&D
So good. Keep posting.
GURPS. Keep point total low
Check out the OSR general thread. Old school D&D was all about having characters be weak to start and die easily. The characters have far fewer powers and soft cap at level 9 with magic capping at level 5 (depending on edition). It becomes more about playing smart than relying on your numbers. I'd recommend Basic and Expert D&D or Adventurer Conqueror King, but there's a bunch of other games with minor differences you can look at.
I don't want to start an edition war, but if you know nothing about old D&D, as is likely the case with OP, 1e is confusing and obtuse as fuck so I don't recommend it.
This ^^
OP here. I'm not an idiot or anything but I have difficulty absorbing information.
It's hard for me, I can't help it.
So for any system recommended, the easier it is the better.
Shadow of the Demon Lord. It's a great streamlined system, making a character takes minutes and involves alot of fun random tables.
You start at level 0 with no class or abilities beyond your racial ones. We average 40% casualties during the first adventure.
Could you share a pdf with me, please?
D&D 4e and start at level 0. Article is "A heroes First Steps" Dragon #403 you can probably look up a pdf for free somewhere.
>We average 40% casualties during the first adventure.
Brutal
I'll do you one better.
mega.nz
And here's the kind of monsters you'll encounter.
>D&D 4e
I will admit, I have not read the article, but even if that level 0 does exactly what OP wants for that level, the PCs become super heroic as soon as they hit level 1.
I LOVE 4e, but it is pretty clearly not what OP wants if he wants a slow start to building up to a heroic power level.
It's not that idiots can't understand 1e, the whole thing is just a mess in layout and archaic in design by modern standards.
Basic and Expert (B/X) D&D is really simple and really fun if you want a low power fantasy game. Or look up Basic Fantasy Roleplay which is very similar to Basic, but more modern in design so it's good if you're familiar with D20 stuff. Also Basic Fantasy Roleplay is totally free for download including supplements and adventures. Look up Morgansfort for a great starter region with multiple dungeons good for the first few levels.
>He thinks all DnD is the smouldering dumpster fire that 3.5 and later versions are.
Thank you.
>he thinks it's not
Wanna know how I can tell you haven't played them?
Why? To play the excting tales of helping cows delivery calves and weeding fields?
Hey, it worked for Vinland Saga.
>D&D mentioned
>immediate edition war
Yes, modern D&D is bad and early editions also have flaws. We can move on now.
....
Point taken.
What point dude? It's a manga. A prebuilt story.
GURPS
Something like,
The group had just been average dirt farmers.
All of the strongest able bodied people in the village are dead.
The only people left are elders and young children... And the party.
Who are far from the best of what the village had to offer.
Maybe it was a weird plague. Maybe monsters. Maybe the adults all just randomly ran away.
From there it's a quest to escape the shadow of what caused this.
To find a new home.
To seek out why this happened.
etc
An adventure into the unknown where everyone has to defend themselves using farm equipment and their wits.
And after almost dying in their first week traveling, they get a bit better at this. Scrape together some gold along the way.
Make it to a merchant caravan or anything village. Use the gold to buy better equipment and training.
Eventually they'd become heroes or something.
I dunno, sounds fun to me.
Came here to post this, DCC is one of the best peasant adventure games.
Sort of what you're looking for, I play a game called Demongate High where you start out as a kid with superpowers and zero idea how to use them, and get thrown up against demons within your first week of classes.
Bump
Strike! also inherited a system like this, but also Seconding the DCC recommendations.
There's also a thing called "Funnel World" which combines DCC with World of Dungeons.
This, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd edition is one of the few systems where "classes" that have the ability to run away better is a significant benefit.
This depends a lot on what you consider "special." Any game can be about peasants desperately struggling against a particularly surly goat if that's what you fluff it as. Whether the mechanics feel peasanty enough for you is another story, and a good reason to be more specific on just what it is you want to happen.
4e is an excellent example of this, even without level 0. Fluff 1st level heroes as pathetic commoners, fluff savage orcs as belligerent seagulls, fluff dragons as sickly wolves, and bam! Peasant adventure.
...but the peasant adventure you want? Harder to say. Focus on tactical combat, decently wide set of abilities, assumption of around 4 encounters a day, relatively nonlethal... could work great or it could still feel weird seeing a shoemaker and stablehand flank a goat to deliver an especially convincing shovel slam.
It's a shit system that's no better than D&D in actual play, save for the toned down magicians. The average fight goes something like this:
>swing weapon
>less than 50% chance of hitting your target unless you're a specced out combat lord
>if hit, opponent gets a similar chance to parry or dodge
>if still hit, roll damage and hope to do enough to get past TB and armor
>chip away at your opponent's health points until they run out and start taking actual damage
And this goes on for fucking ever.
>easily take on wolves
Not in 5e they don't
You could try DH2e with a feudal world setting. Should be fairly easy to tone down the starter characters.
>decently wide set of abilities, assumption of around 4 encounters a day, relatively nonlethal..
Well, that's where the level 0 helps. You only get 1 (weak) at-will ability that represents the meager knowledge you have in one of the power sources.
Of course having a power source at all means you are at least a bit trained, but, thankfully, 4e can be easily run with everyone as martials.
Why the hell would you do that when WFR2e is already just that but with real rules. Go away, Satan.
Because WFR2e is like 10 years old whereas DH2e is relatively new and has a revamped system.
>OP asks for a game about fumbling peasants with no combat skills
>Complain that WFRP features fumbling peasants with no combat skills
Wew
It features fumbling literally everyone, guest starring boredom.
Beyond The Wall.
You start as common villagers (or uncommon, depending on the archetype you choose) who have to save your town. Just you, no outside help coming.
Has a quick but evocative character 'builder', where you take your pc through childhood, adolescence and into adulthood.
Its OSR, so easy to pick up and run quickly.
Your playing it wrong. Sure low levels have a small chance to hit but there are a bunch of combat mods to help, like outnumbering.
To dodge you need the skill.
Your str and their toughness may cancel each other out, but you will still be doing d6 dmg
Wolfs have like 8 hp and no armor.
Harnmaster , Rolemaster , Runequest, Gurps, WHFR.
Pretty much anything not D&D.
Well OP I don't know if this is anything like what you want but a few years ago I wrote up rules for making 0-level player characters in AD&D 2E.
There's also a short adventure where the PCs have to deal with some chaotic randumb 5th-level murderhobos and somehow stop them from being typical player characters and wrecking their home village.
I mean...if you have a decent weapon most people could take down a single wolf fine if they had to. We are larger and our weapons being handheld are far more manueverable than it's teeth.
....
Point taken.